


The Long and Tragic Backstory

by indefatigablelobster



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-15 10:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3443375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indefatigablelobster/pseuds/indefatigablelobster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of oneshots based on some prompts. This is probably gonna go a lot of different ways, but we'll see. There'll be a wide variety of stuff- I don't even know for sure yet.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy! This is my first work that I'm posting, so please review! I'd love to know what you think :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A random act of kindness from an unlikely character

Benedick had been staring at the same Physics problem for the past seven minutes. She hadn't seen his pencil moved since he opened up their homework. Not- not that she had been _staring,_ so to speak, but- it was that he was staring at the page so intensely that it was starting to smoke.

 

Yes. That was it.

 

They were at the tables in the courtyard during the free period that they had together. While they didn't _try_ to sit near each other, neither was willing to give up their spot, so they had reached a stalemate in which they both sat at their respective tables.

 

Earlier in the year, the courtyard would have been filled with raucous shouts and noises of disdain, but ever since Beatrice had... overheard Hero and Ursula’s conversation, she had been avoiding conversation with Ben. Completely. They had exchanged hellos two days ago and Beatrice had felt like she was going to throw up.

 

He really was struggling, though. And while Beatrice was loathe to speak to him, Physics was one of her best subjects, and it wouldn't be right to just let him suffer. And they had to get over whatever bullshit was making things weird. Right?

 

Sighing loudly to announce that she was getting up, Beatrice closed her book and got up.

 

She strode over to where he was sitting and cleared her throat. He had looked up warily when she stood up, but now there was a slight fear in his eyes.

 

“Benedick, do you need help with Physics?” Beatrice did her best to convey as little emotion as possible, but she couldn't be sure that her cheeks weren't coloring.

 

Ben, if possible, looked more confused. “Uh, sure? I mean, I just need help understanding the application of this formula- the one for adding vectors? There is no mass in this problem. Mr. Armado is wrong. It’s impossible.”

 

Beatrice slid onto the bench next to him. “See, it only looks that way because he doesn't specifically state the mass. But he does give you the gravitational force in Newtons, and you can convert that because gravity is a constant.”

 

Benedick looked at her like she had given him the answer to the universe. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her vehemently. “THANK YOU! I had no clue and that makes so much sense this is beautiful thank Jesus and the pope...”

 

His voice trailed off as he realized that he was still clutching her shoulders. He recoiled quickly and gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

 

“Thanks. Really.”

 

Beatrice rubbed the back of her neck. “Not a problem. Uh... I’m- I’m gonna go talk to Mr. Aguecheek about that English essay and... and I’m just gonna... go.”

 

Rushing to grab her books and throw them in her bag, Beatrice dashed out of the courtyard with more than one backward glance.

 

That- had been interesting...

 

 


	2. Put a random playlist on shuffle and write a story inspired by the first song title

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hero has changed since the party. That much is clear.

Time had made the pain fade. It was no longer a wall of red, encompassing her every thought, but more of a background, white noise from an old computer screen. Hero was moving on.

She wasn't the same person she had been before; the ordeal she had survived, but the pain she had not. It wasn't that she was cruel, or vicious, or mean. But for the first time, she fully understood what it meant to be hated, to be seen as lesser, other. 

Hero endured taunts and jeers that had been alien to her before. She was always the first one to stand up for the kid being bullied on the playground; no one would ever think to hurt someone like Hero Duke, of all people, so no one would bother the kid again, as she would attach herself to their hip for a week. But no one had ever said anything mean to her; no one had ever insulted her to her face. 

So the first day she had returned to school, to have every friend turn their back on her to whisper, she felt the full effect of their words. Not only had she endured a scarring event, but every person she knew thought she deserved it.

Hero realized what it meant to be an outsider, and what it meant to be shunned. She found out which friends were fickle, who would no longer wave to her in the hallway, who refused to let her sit with them in the library.

Every person she believed to be as good, kind, pure as she was said to be had thrown it back in her face like hot oil.

And so, when she stood amongst the trees, listening to her supposed friends (discounting Bea, Ben, Ursula, and Balthazar) talk about how wonderful a person she was, she realized that they had never felt either way about her; instead, they had believed what they had been told about her, without ever actually knowing her.

And that was easier, wasn't it? To fit people into neat boxes and never actually know them? To pretend people were as deep as their reflections and could actually be summed up in five words?

Hero learned better.

She found that by actually learning about people, she could be a better person. She had done this before, but it had been more in the background; she had never considered that Balthazar might really love Politics or that Ursula would never cry when she was angry or that there was a whole sea of chaos behind the eerily calm surface that was John Donaldson. And she knew that was wrong. People had never seen past her cliche, so she decided to see past theirs.

That was why she forgave John so easily. It had taken an hour of apologies, tears, and revelations to finally understand his motivations and the effects of his actions. He had seen her as a full person, with emotions and quirks and imperfections that made her more human, and that was why she forgave him.

That was also why she didn't forgive Claudio so easily. His apologies had been full of praise of her character, making her seem superhuman, angelic, other.

But she wasn't. Hero was human and she was selfish and she didn't have to forgive him right away. And that was okay.

She had accepted his apology eventually, in order to keep him from grovelling and to keep his praise from continuing. She never wanted to hear herself described as “sweet” ever again.

So the pain didn't ever stop. The change never stopped. But with the passage of time, it had calmed to a dull roar in the back of her mind. And that was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song was Passage by Lowercase Noises. I really liked writing this- it was a bit more my speed. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the kudos and the comments! They mean so much and it's really encouraging :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it :) Please comment and leave kudos if you want! It means so much :)


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